Allen West’s “connection” between Christopher Columbus and the conquest of islam.

This was a post I came across on Facebook this morning. It’s pretty far-fetched and ridiculous to me, any thoughts???

“Happy Politically Incorrect Columbus Day. Did you know there’s a link between Islamic conquest and Columbus’ discovery of the New World? In 711 an Islamic force invaded the Iberian peninsula, defeated the Visigoths and pushed on to France. In France, they were turned back by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732. But the Islamic Moors ruled in present day Spain for some 700 years. Later during the Spanish “Reconquista,” they were pushed into southern Spain in what they called Al Andalusia and established the Umayyad Caliphate consisting of cities such as Toledo, Granada, Seville, and Cordoba. The last Moorish city of Granada fell in 1492 under Spanish rulers, Ferdinand I and Isabella I, of Aragon and Castille. Meanwhile, some 40 years earlier, in 1453, the Ottoman Muslim Turks, conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, renaming it Istanbul and instituting Islamic rule. The all-important trade route east for Europe had been cut. It was Columbus who went to Ferdinand and Isabella seeking sponsorship for an expedition to find a new way to the east, as he believed the world was circular and could be circumnavigated by sea. Columbus found favor with Isabella and the rest, well, is history. The founding of the New World can thus be directly attributed as a response to Islamic conquest. Lastly, never forget the Islamic concept that wherever Islam has ruled (Dar-al-Islam), but been overcome (Dar-al-Harb), it must rule again.”